TL;DR
Equipotential bonding is the deliberate interconnection of all conductive parts around a swimming pool or spa — rebar in the shell, metal ladders and rails, pump motors, and the perimeter deck — with a bare 8 AWG copper conductor so everything sits at the same electrical potential and no voltage gradient can pass through a swimmer. NEC 680.26 details the grid, including bonding the water itself.
What it means
Equipotential bonding is the deliberate interconnection of all conductive parts around a swimming pool or spa — rebar in the shell, metal ladders and rails, pump motors, and the perimeter deck — with a bare 8 AWG copper conductor so everything sits at the same electrical potential and no voltage gradient can pass through a swimmer. NEC 680.26 details the grid, including bonding the water itself. It prevents shock from stray voltage even when nothing has technically failed, which is why inspectors check it before a pool deck is poured.
Where it sits in the glossary
Equipotential bonding is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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